Hello!  I am an associate professor co-appointed between the Rady School of Management and the School for Global Policy and Strategy at UCSD. My research draws on fields such as consumer psychology, neuroscience and behavioral economics to study how people use and integrate information in the world around them to make everyday decisions. 

I just completed my year as President for the  Society for Neuroeconomics and will continue to serve on the executive board until fall of 2026. 

Prior to joining UCSD, my first faculty position was as an assistant professor in the  Marketing Unit at the Harvard Business School, with an affiliation with the Harvard Center for Brain Science, and I spent a year as a visiting professor at Berkeley's Haas School of Business. My CV is here. 

 ✉   ukarmarkar@ucsd.edu

☎  (858) 534-7636

You can also find me on BlueSky.

ABC10 story where on the consumer psychology related to the "Lipstick Effect," or why we need a little treat sometimes. Full story and video here (2025)

Chatting with Thomas Fudge from KPBS on how we interact with retail spaces at the UCSD Bookstore (2024)

Interview with John A. Byrne from Poets and Quants on neuroeconomics, marketing, and the Rady School of Management (2024)

Short film collaboration with the company Patagonia on the neuroscience and psychology of what happens when we shop, and why we like to buy new stuff. (2023)

Interview with KPBS - Binge-watching more controlled than previously thought, UCSD Study finds, (2023)

Opinion Science Podcast : Episode 77, Opinions in the Brain (2023)

A conversation about neuromarketing, brand perception, ethics and decision-making on The Sid Warrier Podcast (2022)

Consumer neuroscience retail insights: Talk given for ICARE Chile's Marketing Cycle on Neuromarketing , 2022. (Talk starts at around 3:48, English with Spanish subtitles.)

Discussing "Why Neuromarketing Matters in B2B" with Ming Hsu and Erik Kostelnik from Postal.io on the B2B Growth podcast

Interview on KPBS's Forum, discussing  ethics and consumer neuroscience

Neural and Behavioral Insights on Trust : Presented at the 2017 Enigma Conference